Responding to the US’s perpetual war, Butler explores how mourning could inspire solidarity.

In her most impassioned and personal book to date, Judith Butler responds in this profound appraisal of post-9/11 America to the current US policies to wage perpetual war, and calls for a deeper understanding of how mourning and violence might instead inspire solidarity and a quest for global justice.

Reviews

“It’s clear that its author is still interested in stirring up trouble — academic, political and otherwise.”

– Bookforum

“A book that shines with the splendor of engaged thought.”

– Brooklyn Rail

“Here is a unique voice of courage and conceptual ambition that addresses public life from the perspective of psychic reality, encouraging us to acknowledge the solidarity and the suffering through which we emerge as subjects of freedom.”

– Homi K. Bhabha

“Judith Butler is quite simply one of the most probing, challenging, and influential thinkers of our time.”

Celebrating #WomenInTranslation month at Verso, we are highlighting international editions of Verso books by women whose writing has made an impact around the world.

The second in our series showcases Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence by Judith Butler, an impassioned response to the wars of post-9/11 America and a call for solidarity in shared precariousness across borders, now available in French, Italian, Turkish, Swedish, Chinese and Japanese translated editions since first publication by Verso in 2004.

Judith Butler's new book interweaves her two theories of performativity and precarity with the works of Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Agamben, and Emmanuel Levinas as a way to critically assess and speak to Tahrir Square, Occupy, Black Lives Matter, and other movements of dissent. In this interview, Stephanie Berbec asks her to consider her work in light of the recent events at Standing Rock and the 2016 presidential election.